Tchaikovsky Symphony No 2, Movement 1, The Little Russian, (1/2) - Sydney Youth Philharmonic - SYO - YouTube Tchaikovsky Symphony No 2, Movement 1, The Little Russian, (1/2) - Sydney Youth Philharmonic - SYO Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Mar 21, 2010 Part 1 - Tchaikovsky Symphony No 2 "The Little Russian" Movement 1, Andante Sostenuto performed by The Sydney Youth Philharmonic. Conducted by Brian Buggy OAM. This full symphony orchestra is for musicians aged 14 - 20 years old. Best viewed larger by clicking the "480p" button. Click here for Part 2: Recorded live on 20 March 2010 at the Sydney Youth Orchestras SYO Autumn Concert at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia.

The Orchestra's website is Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильич Чайковский, tr. Pëtr Il'ich Chaikovskiy ) often Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in English; May 7, 1840[O.S. April 25] -- November 6, 1893 [O.S. October 25]) is a Russian composer of the Romantic era. His wide ranging output includes symphonies, operas, ballets, instrumental and chamber music and songs. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, his last three numbered symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Symphony No. 2 Tchaikovsky composed his Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 in 1872.

One of Tchaikovsky's very joyous compositions, it was successful upon its premiere; it also won the favor of the group of nationalistic Russian composers known as "The Five", (Mily Balakirev - the leader, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin). Because Tchaikovsky used three Ukrainian folk songs to great effect in this work, it was nicknamed the "Little Russian" (Russian: Малороссийская, Malorossiyskaya) by Nikolay Kashkin, a friend of the composer as well as a well-known musical critic of Moscow. Ukraine was at that time frequently called "Little Russia". Despite its initial success, Tchaikovsky was not satisfied with the symphony. He revised the work extensively in 1879-80, substantially rewriting the opening movement and shortening the finale. This revision is the version of the symphony usually performed today, though there have also been advocates for the original version. Among those advocates was the composer's friend and former student, Sergei Taneyev, who was himself a noted composer and pedagogue.

Movement 1 Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivo (C minor). A solo horn playing a Ukrainian variant of "Down by Mother Volga" sets the atmosphere for this movement. Tchaikovsky reintroduces this song in the development section, and the horn sings it once more at the movement's conclusion. The rather vigorous second subject utilises a melody which would also be used subsequently by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in his Russian Easter Festival Overture. The end of the exposition, in the relative major of E flat, leads straight into the development, in which material from both themes is heard. A long pedal note leads back to the second subject. Unusually, Tchaikovsky does not repeat the first subject theme in its entirety in this section, as is conventional, but instead uses it solely for the coda. Initial Success Tchaikovsky played the finale at a gathering at Rimsky-Korsakov's house in St. Petersburg on January 7, 1873. To Modest, he wrote, "The whole company almost tore me to pieces with rapture—and Madame Rimskaya-Korsakova begged me in tears to let her arrange it for piano duet".

Neither Balakirev nor Mussorgsky was present. Borodin was there and may have approved of the work himself. Also present was music critic Vladimir Stasov. Impressed by what he heard, Stasov asked Tchaikovsky what he would consider writing next. Stasov would soon influence the composer in writing the symphonic poem The Tempest and later, with Balakirev, the Manfred Symphony. The premiere of the complete symphony took place in Moscow under Nikolai Rubinstein on February 7, 1873. Tchaikovsky wrote Stasov the next day that it "enjoyed a great success, so great that Rubinstein wants to perform it again ... as by public demand." That publicly demanded performance, on April 9, was even more successful. A third Moscow performance, again by public demand, took place on May 27. Critical reaction was just as enthusiastic. Stasov wrote of the finale "in terms of color, facture and humor ... one of the most important creations of the entire Russian school. " Hermann Laroche, who had travelled from St.

Petersburg especially for the concert, wrote in the Moscow Register on February 1, "Not in a long time have I come across a work with such a powerful thematic development of ideas and with contrasts that are so well motivated and artistically thought out." Adapted from Wikipedia. Tchaikovsky's Little Russian Symphony and Nielsen's Flute and Violin Concertos Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin . Tchaikovsky's Little Russian Symphony and Nielsen's Flute and Violin Concertos Nielsen Tchaikovsky's Little Russian Symphony and Nielsen's Flute and Violin Concertos Recorded October 12, 2012 Alan Gilbert Conductor The 2016–17 season marks Alan Gilbert’s eighth and final season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. The first native New Yorker to hold the post, he has sought to make the Orchestra a point of pride for the city and country. The Financial Times called him “the imaginative maestro-impresario in residence.” Mr.

Gilbert and the Philharmonic have forged artistic partnerships, introducing the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence — held in the 2016–17 season by Esa-Pekka Salonen and violinist Leonidas Kavakos, respectively — as well as Artist-in-Association, currently held by pianist Inon Barnatan, who inaugurated the role in the 2014–15 season; an annual festival, which this season is Beloved Friend — Tchaikovsky and His World, featuring Russian-born Semyon Bychkov conducting works by Tchaikovsky as well as composers he was influenced by and whom he influenced; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers. During his tenure the Philharmonic launched the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, partnerships with cultural institutions to offer training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies.

These include the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership and collaborations with Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic also launched a five-year partnership with the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan. Alan Gilbert concludes his final season as Music Director with four programs that reflect signature themes of his tenure, featuring works that hold particular meaning for him and musicians with whom he has formed close relationships. These include a pairing of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw; Wagner’s complete Das Rheingold in concert; the New York Premiere of Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing alongside Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos in Brahms’s Violin Concerto and the New York Premiere of Aeriality by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, the second Kravis Emerging Composer, an honor introduced during Alan Gilbert’s tenure; and an exploration of how music can effect positive change in the world. Other 2016–17 season highlights include three World Premieres; Dvořák’s Symphony No.

9, From the New World, as part of the New York Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary celebrations; Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Handel’s Messiah; the World Premiere presentation of Gershwin’s score to Manhattan, performed live to the film; Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre; a concert with friends celebrating his 50th birthday; works by John Adams marking the composer’s 70th birthday; and the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour. As part of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, he will lead the Orchestra in its third annual performance residency through the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, and will lead the Philharmonic and Academy Festival Orchestra together in Santa Barbara through the partnership with Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West. Last season’s Philharmonic highlights included R.

Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben to welcome newly appointed Concertmaster Frank Huang; Carnegie Hall’s 125th anniversary Opening Night Gala; premieres by William Bolcom, Franck Krawczyk, Magnus Lindberg, and Marc Neikrug; works by Sibelius in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth; as well as Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and an all-Mozart program. He also co-curated the second NY PHIL BIENNIAL — during which he conducted works by Boulez and Stucky, in tribute to the late composers, as well as premieres by William Bolcom, John Corigliano, and Per Nørgård, the second recipient of The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music at the New York Philharmonic, an honor introduced during Alan Gilbert’s tenure. The Music Director also performed violin in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time alongside Philharmonic principals and Mr. Barnatan. Under the New York Philharmonic Global Academy he led the Orchestra in its second performance residency in Shanghai and made his second appearance conducting the Music Academy of the West’s Academy Festival Orchestra.

Previous high points among Mr. Gilbert’s Philharmonic appearances include critically celebrated staged productions such as Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (2010) and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (2011), both cited as the top cultural events of their respective years; Philharmonic 360 at Park Avenue Armory (2012), the acclaimed spatial music program featuring Stockhausen’s Gruppen; A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky (2013, and later presented in movie theaters internationally); a staged production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson that was broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center, earning Mr. Gilbert an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Direction (2014); and the U.S. Premiere of a staging of Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake featuring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (2015).

Other highlights include the first two editions of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL; World Premieres of works by Christopher Rouse, Magnus Lindberg, Peter Eötvös , and composers featured on CONTACT!; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey, performed live to the film; Mahler’s Second Symphony, Resurrection, on A Concert for New York on September 10; the Verdi Requiem; the conclusion of The Nielsen Project, the multi-year initiative to perform and record the Danish composer’s symphonies and concertos; Mr. Gilbert’s Philharmonic debut as violin soloist in J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins; six concerts at Carnegie Hall; and ten tours around the world. In August 2015 he led the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in the U.S. Stage Premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, co-presented by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center, the inaugural production of the Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and former principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras nationally and internationally, such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. He has appeared at The Metropolitan, Los Angeles, Zurich, Royal Swedish, and Santa Fe opera companies. This season Mr. Gilbert returns to the foremost European orchestras, records Beethoven’s complete piano concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Inon Barnatan, and conducts Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, his first time leading a staged opera there. In September 2011 Alan Gilbert became Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he is also the first holder of Juilliard’s William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies.

He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2008 leading John Adams’s Doctor Atomic; the DVD and Blu-ray of this production received the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Renée Fleming’s Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. Earlier releases garnered Grammy Award nominations and top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. He received his second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Direction for Sinatra: Voice for a Century, broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center in 2015. Mr. Gilbert conducted Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux étoiles on a recent album recorded live at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and Juilliard and was assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra (1995–97).

He received Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Curtis in May 2010 and from Westminster Choir College in May 2016, and in December 2011 he received Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music.” In 2014 he was elected to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, in 2015 he received a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy and was named Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2016 he received New York University’s Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City in recognition of his leadership in making New York one of the world’s great centers for music and the arts. Robert Langevin Flute With the start of the 2000–01 season, Robert Langevin joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Flute, in The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair.

In May 2001, he made his solo debut with the Orchestra in the North American premiere of Siegfried Matthus’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen and Music Director Kurt Masur. His October 2012 solo performance in Nielsen’s Flute Concerto, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, was recorded for inclusion in The Nielsen Project, the Orchestra’s multi-season traversal of all of the Danish composer’s symphonies and concertos, to be released by Dacapo Records. Prior to the Philharmonic, Mr. Langevin held the Jackman Pfouts Principal Flute Chair of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and was an adjunct professor at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh. Mr. Langevin served as associate principal of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for 13 years, playing on more than 30 recordings. As a member of Musica Camerata Montreal and l’Ensemble de la Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, he premiered many works, including the Canadian premiere of Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître. In addition, Mr.

Langevin has performed as soloist with Quebec’s most distinguished ensembles and has recorded many recitals and chamber music programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He also served on the faculty of the University of Montreal for nine years. Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Robert Langevin began studying flute at age 12 and joined the local orchestra three years later. While studying with Jean-Paul Major at the Montreal Conservatory of Music, he started working in recording studios, where he accompanied a variety of artists of different styles. He graduated in 1976 with two first prizes, one in flute, the other, in chamber music. Not long after, he won the prestigious Prix d’Europe, a national competition open to all instruments with a first prize of a two-year scholarship to study in Europe. This enabled him to work with Aurèle Nicolet at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, where he graduated in 1979. He then went on to study with Maxence Larrieu, in Geneva, winning second prize at the Budapest International Competition in 1980. Mr.

Langevin is a member of the Philharmonic Quintet of New York with which he has performed concerts on many continents. In addition, he has given recitals and master classes throughout the United States and in countries such as Canada, Spain, Costa Rica, Japan, North Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam. He is currently on the faculties of The Juilliard School, The Manhattan School of Music, and the Orford International Summer Festival. Nikolaj Znaider Violin Nikolaj Znaider performs as both conductor and violin soloist with the world’s most distinguished orchestras. He has been principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Orchestra since 2010, and was previously principal guest conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Following a triumphant return to the BBC Proms with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Christian Thielemann, in the 2016–17 season Mr. Znaider embarks on a new project: recording Mozart’s complete violin concertos, conducted from the violin with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). He has a particularly strong relationship with the LSO, with whom he conducts and performs as soloist every season. As both conductor and soloist, Mr.

Znaider is interested in deepening his connections with the key orchestras with which he feels a special bond, working regularly with orchestras such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and the Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, and National symphony orchestras. Mr. Znaider’s extensive discography includes Nielsen’s Violin Concerto with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic (available as part of The Nielsen Project on Dacapo Records), Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the late Colin Davis and the Dresden Staatskapelle, award-winning recordings of Brahms’s and Korngold’s Violin Concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic, Beethoven’s and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concertos with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Glazunov’s Violin Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on DVD. Mr.

Znaider has also recorded Brahms’s complete works for violin and piano with Yefim Bronfman. Nikolaj Znaider is passionate about supporting the next generation of musical talent and spent ten years as founder and artistic director of the annual Nordic Music Academy summer school. He plays the “Kreisler” Guarnerius “del Gesu” 1741 on extended loan to him by The Royal Danish Theater through the generosity of the VELUX Foundation and the Knud Højgaard Foundation. CARL NIELSEN (1865-1931) Flute Concerto (1926) This season, the New York Philharmonic performs all three of Carl Nielsen's concertos: flute, clarinet, and violin — a rare opportunity, given that Denmark's most important composer is better known for his six symphonies ("The Four Temperaments," "Espansiva," "Inextinguishable," for example). In 1921 Nielsen had heard a performance by the Copenhagen Wind Quintet and was so taken by their sound that he also composed a Wind Quintet for them the following year and promised to write a concerto for each member as well.

He wanted each concerto to reflect the personality of the dedicatee. Unfortunately, deteriorating health prevented him from reaching his goal, and he was able to compose only the two on this program. The present one for flute was written for Holger Gilbert-Jespersen (1890-1975). Nielsen worked on his composition while traveling in Italy, but kept in touch with Gilbert- Jespersen, sending the music to the soloist as soon as it was completed. The concerto was to be premiered in Paris on an all-Nielsen concert, but the composer was unable to finish the work in time. He quickly supplied a temporary ending for the occasion, writing the "real" conclusion for the Copenhagen premiere in 1927. Birgitte Moyer-Vinding who knew Gilbert- Jespersen felt that the flute part reflected the musician's personality well, saying he was "a gentle soul with a wonderful sense of humor, and, like the music, also full of shadow and ambiguity.

The Flute Concerto is a portrait so complete that new facets of his personality are discovered with each hearing." The work takes off with an energetic flurry of notes and soon lyrical passages alternate with more dissonant ones for both soloist and orchestra. Throughout the two-movement work there are furious outbursts of great power, but also sections in which the flute displays its gentle nature. Nielsen has a bit of fun with some trombone slides as the work draws to a spirited conclusion. CARL NIELSEN (1865-1931) Violin Concerto, Op. 33 (1911) The present Violin Concerto was Carl Nielsen's first foray into the concerto genre. But he had a vision of what a concerto should be: "It must be good music and still take into account the display of the solo instrument in the best light, that is: eventful, popular, and brilliant without being superficial. These are contradictions that can and must and fuse into a higher unity. It amuses me no end." Nielsen already knew something about violin-playing; his father, an amateur fiddler, had instructed him.

From him he also learned to play cornet, later joining a military band. After attending the Royal Academy of Music Nielsen became a member of the second violin section of the Royal Chapel in 1889, and later conductor of the same ensemble. Fast forward to the summer of 1911 when Nina Grieg, widow of Norway's national composer, invited him to spend part of the summer at Troldhaugen. It was there that Nielsen began the concerto-in fact, ensconced in Grieg's own little composing "hut." The composer himself was on the podium for the premiere in 1912 leading the Royal Danish Orchestra, with his son-in-law Emil Telmányi (1892-1988) as soloist. This work, along with the Third Symphony, "Sinfonia espansiva," coincidentally premiered at the same concert, finally gave Nielsen the critical acclaim he had longed for.

Some guideposts for listening: the virtuoso cadenza that propels the audience into the first movement; the amusingly named second section of that movement, "Allegro cavalleresco" — full of gentleness and charm; and at the beginning of the second movement, the oboe's playing the pitches B-A-C-H (in German notation), a composer whom Nielsen held in great esteem. Our soloist Nikolaj Znaider has been an ardent advocate of the concerto, and his recording of it has garnered critical praise. And perhaps that's not surprising. He, too, was born in Denmark (in 1975) and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. And in 1992, he won First Prize at the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. YouTube Undo Close "P. I. Tchaikovsky - Symphon..." The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement. Sorry about that. Symphony No. 2 | LA Phil Symphony No. 2 Composed: 1872, rev.

1879-80 Length: 35 minutes Orchestration: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam), and strings Relations between Tchaikovsky and "The Five," that influential band of Russian nationalist composers, were always a little tender. Those five - Mussorgsky, Borodin, Cui, Balakirev, and Rimsky-Korsakov - admired Tchaikovsky's talents but were suspicious of his conservatory training and his use of Western forms. For his part, Tchaikovsky regarded The Five as talented amateurs limited by their insistence on using native materials. Relations between the factions were never bad, but they had little to do with each other. Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony, in fact, occasioned one of their few moments of cordial contact. Tchaikovsky composed this Symphony in 1872 and revised it seven years later.

The Second is Tchaikovsky's shortest symphony, but what makes this music distinctive is his use of folktunes for some of its themes. This was a technique favored by The Five, and Rimsky-Korsakov in particular was impressed when Tchaikovsky played this music for him on the piano shortly before the premiere (Rimsky's wife liked the last movement so much that she wanted to make a two-piano arrangement of it). Scholars have identified specific folktunes in this Symphony, but much of the thematic material has a folksong quality, even if it is Tchaikovsky's own. The authentic folktunes that Tchaikovsky employed here come from the Ukraine, a region sometimes known as "Little Russia" (19th-century Ukrainians were unhappy about that nickname, their relations with Russia being as much a source of friction then as they are today). Tchaikovsky wrote down these tunes in his sketchbook after hearing peasants sing them while he was on vacation at the family home in Kamenka. The nickname "Little Russian," however, did not originate with the composer - it was coined by the music critic Nicholas Kashkin.

The first movement opens with a long solo for French horn based on the Ukrainian folksong "Down by Mother Volga." Over the course of the lengthy introduction, this theme repeats several times, harmonized and colored differently on each appearance. The music leaps ahead at the Allegro vivo, which itself sounds folksong-derived. Tchaikovsky may have had difficulty with symphonic form, but this movement is beautifully-made: the development treats both the main theme of the exposition and the horn theme from the introduction. It is a mark of Tchaikovsky's growing sophistication as a composer that he turns a fragment of the principal theme into an accompaniment figure - that chattering little figure takes on unusual power in this transformation - then concludes by bringing back the horn melody from the very beginning. The Second Symphony has no true slow movement. The second movement, marked Andante marziale, was originally the wedding march from Tchaikovsky's ill-fated opera Undine, which he destroyed before it was produced. Over the timpani's steady tread, woodwinds sing the little march tune; a more lyric second idea follows. The third movement, Allegro molto vivace, is a propulsive scherzo in ABA form.

Metric units are quite short here: the outer sections are in 3/8, the trio in 2/8. The opening of the finale has an unusual model: the finale of Beethoven's First Symphony. In both cases, the composer lets the main theme emerge, bit by bit, and then take wing. Tchaikovsky's brassy main theme here bears a striking resemblance to the "Promenade" of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, though the Tchaikovsky was written first - it is in fact a derivation of the Ukrainian folktune "The Crane." This theme accelerates until it suddenly is transformed into the athletic main idea, and Tchaikovsky offers a lilting second idea in the violins. The music reaches a superheated climax on a tam-tam stroke, and out of the silence Tchaikovsky drives the music on to the exciting close. It is no surprise that this finale - with its imaginative ideas about structure, unusual harmonic progressions, and use of folktunes - should have delighted Rimsky-Korsakov. This movement was in fact Tchaikovsky's own favorite.

- Eric Bromberger annotates programs for many organizations, including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Washington Performing Arts Society at the Kennedy Center, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Society, and San Diego's Mainly Mozart Festival. The 15 best pieces of Russian classical music - Classic FM Classic FM Latest Now Playing The 15 best pieces of Russian classical music 26 September 2014, 14:34 From the nationalism of the Mighty Handful, through Stravinsky's revolutionary Rite, to Shostakovich's dazzling piano concertos, these are the best classical pieces that Russian composers have given the world. Mikhail Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila, Overture (1842) The father of Russian music, Glinka influenced his countrymen to produce a distinctive national style all of their own. The opera Ruslan and Lyudmila is a folk tale with all the necessaries - beautiful princess, valiant suitor, evil wizard, abduction, battles and rescue. Tchaikovsky called Ruslan, 'the Tsar of operas'. The thrilling overture is a favourite in its own right and performed more than the opera.

Mily Balakirev: Islamey (1869) Balakirev's nationalistic music was full of authentic Russian flavours. He composed Islamey after a trip to the Caucasus that left a deep impression. The piece had a big influence on other composers, including fellow members of the group known as The Mighty Handful or The Five. Borodin quoted Islamey in Prince Igor , as did Rimsky-Korsakov in Scheherazade . It's extremely difficult; Scriabin seriously damaged his right hand fanatically practising it. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture (1880) From its introductory Russian hymn to the bombastic cannon fire that concludes this unashamedly nationalistic piece, it’s one of the greatest examples of how Tchaikovsky was a master of orchestration. Alexander Borodin : In the Steppes of Central Asia (1880) When Tsar Alexander II held his Silver Jubilee in 1880, he commissioned Borodin - another of The Mighty Handful - to compose a symphonic poem.

It was intended to be the soundtrack to a tableau vivant – with actors holding a pose, on a set, lit to resemble a painting. The ‘production’ was called off after an assassination attempt. Rimksy-Korsakov rescued the piece, though, for his 1880 season with the Russian Opera Orchestra. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (1888) Rimsky-Korsakov, also a member of The Five, loosely based his symphonic suite on stories from the Arabian Nights. Despite there being 1001 nights in the original collection, his version has just four movements. Rimsky-Korsakov settled on the work's title because he thought it "brought to everyone’s mind the fairy-tale wonders of Arabian Nights and the East in general." César Cui: Orientale (1894) César Cui, the least known member of The Five, was a professional military engineer, specialising in fortification. Cui's music is largely forgotten, with the exception of Orientale, the ninth piece in his violin and piano collection, Kaleidoscope. It’s often re-arranged for cello and piano.

Alexander Glazunov: The Seasons (1899) The prolific Glazunov completed eight symphonies, composed chamber and choral music, a violin and two piano concertos. He also wrote three ballets. The last, The Seasons, premiered in St. Petersburg in 1900. Unconventionally, the ballet does not have a story but instead creates four tableaux based on the changing seasons. Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor (1901) After the disastrous premiere of his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninov fell into a deep depression and suffered severe writer's block. Luckily, the composition of his Piano Concerto No. 2 marked his full recovery. Glorious melody after glorious melody flows from the keyboard. If, when listening to the second movement, you think you might have heard the tune somewhere else before, take a listen to the power ballad, All By Myself. Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy (1905-1908) Scriabin described music as being the most highly evolved of all the human arts, and ecstasy as the most highly evolved of all human emotions.

Scriabin's programme for the work divides the work into three parts: his soul in the orgy of love; the realisation of a fantastical dream; and the glory of his own art. Igor Stravinsky : The Rite of Spring (1913) The Parisian premiere of Stravinsky’s ballet caused the most famous riot in the history of music. The earthy, violent score was scandalous for its disregard of accepted ballet and its seeming refusal to adhere to any kind of tradition. By the time the first part of the ballet was over, the police had already arrived and were making efforts to calm the outraged audience. It still packs a punch. Sergei Prokofiev : Romeo and Juliet (1935) Prokofiev’s first big idea for Romeo and Juliet was probably just a little beyond the pale: he was going to change it to have a happy ending. But he didn't go that far. The centrepiece of the work must be 'The Montagues and Capulets' - sometimes known as 'The Dance of the Knights'. It's music that has possibly not been matched for sheer drama since it was written.

Reinhold Glière: Harp Concerto (1938) To write this work, Glière consulted the harpist Ksenia Erdely. She made so many suggestions that he offered to credit her as co-composer, but she declined. Accessible and romantic, there are moments that recall the Viennese classical style and Russian romantic nationalism. Aram Khachaturian : Spartacus (1954) To prepare for this work, the composer took a trip around Italy, visiting the places at the centre of the famous story of a slave rebellion. By far the most captivating moment comes in Act II when Spartacus manages to free his wife Phrygia and the lovers celebrate. It’s a theme made all the more popular by its use in the television drama, The Onedin Line. Dmitri Shostakovich : Piano Concerto No.2 in F major (1957) Four years after the death of Stalin, Shostakovich wrote this dazzling piece as a birthday present for his son Maxim – an accomplished pianist. Either side of the soulful Andante are two vivacious movements, full of an overwhelming sense of fun.

Shostakovich apparently hid all sorts of family references within the music – jokes that only he and Maxim would truly understand. Tchaikovsky Symphony No 2 Little Russian | Albums | Pentatone | NativeDSD Music Read more Mikhail Pletnev After his studies at the Central Special Music School, Mikhail Pletnev entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1974, where he studied with Jakob Flier and Lev Vlasenko. Aged only 21, Pletnev was the Gold Medal and First Prize winner of the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. He has since appeared as soloist with the major orchestras under conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano and Kurt Sanderling. In 1990, following the collapse of the Soviet system, Mikhail Pletnev was able to realize his dream of forming the Russian National Orchestra. Under his artistic leadership, the RNO has become known as one of the world’s leading orchestras.

Although his conducting career is primarily focused on the RNO, he also makes appearances as a guest-conductor with such prestigious orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berliner Sinfonieorchester and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In September 1999, Pletnev was appointed the RNO’s Conductor Laureate and his collaboration with the orchestra has continued in many of its recordings and concerts. In February 2003, he conducted the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra at the Berliner Konzerthaus for the official opening of the Russian Year of Culture. Russian National Orchestra The Russian National Orchestra was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev and is today recognized as one of the world’s top orchestras. Maintaining an active international tour schedule, the RNO appears throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas, and is a frequent visitor to major festivals such as Edinburgh, Shanghai and the BBC Proms. The orchestra presents its own RNO Grand Festival each September to open the Moscow season, and is founding orchestra of Festival del Sole , held every July in California’s Napa Valley.

RNO concerts are regularly aired on National Public Radio in the United States, the European Broadcasting Union, and Russia's Kultura channel. The orchestra's critically acclaimed discography, launched with a 1991 CD cited as the best recording of Tchaikovsky’s Pathéthiquein history, now numbers more than 80 recordings, with conductors that include Founder and Music Director Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Jurowski, Kent Nagano, Vasily Petrenko and Carlo Ponti. Read more GREAT RUSSIAN SYMPHONIES (10-CD Box Set) - 8.501059 – Jeremy Siepmann interviews Vasily Petrenko GREAT RUSSIAN SYMPHONIES (10-CD Box Set) The word ‘symphony’ is used to describe an extended orchestral composition in Western classical music. By the eighteenth century the Italianate opera sinfonia—musical interludes between operas or concertos—had assumed the structure of three contrasting movements, and it is this form that is often considered as the direct forerunner of the orchestral symphony.

With the rise of established professional orchestras, the symphony assumed a more prominent place in concert life between 1790 and 1820 until it eventually came to be regarded by many as the yardstick by which one would measure a composer’s achievement. The symphony came late to Russia. The first attempts at a Russian Nationalist symphony were made in the late nineteenth-century by Balakirev and his acolytes, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov as well as by Tchaikovsky, whose symphonies (despite his European leanings) have a distinctly Russian flavour. In their wake followed numerous composers, from Glazunov to Myaskovsky, similarly instilling their music with the melodies of their homeland. In the years that followed Russian politics had an unmistakable impact on the Russian symphonists, as Rachmaninov and Prokofiev (among others) went into exile whilst composers such as Shostakovich vented their political frustrations through the medium of music—his Leningrad Symphony being a prime example. Disc 1 Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos.

2 ("Little Russian") And 3 ("Polish") - Microsoft Store Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 2 ("Little Russian") And 3 ("Polish") 2011 • 9 songs • Classical • Classical Period • Musical Concepts Buy album $9.99 MP3 MP3 download When you buy an album or a song, you can also download it on Android, Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8. More from Large Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Culture Famous Russian Composers of Classical Music Contact Famous Russian Composers Russian composers have created some of the most beautiful and powerful classical music. They hold a special place in my heart, and they're also separated geographically and historically form the rest of Europe. Since there are so many of them, and they're a tight-knit bunch, I've put several of them here on one page. Of course there's Peter Tchaikovsky as well, but he's famous enough to have his own section.

In the 19th century, a group called The Five (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Borodin and Cesar Cui) banded together and made their goal the promotion of purely Russian music. Their compositions were inspired by Russian history and folk stories, and used traditional tunes and harmonies. It's the perfect example of nationalist music, which had a huge rise all over Europe towards the end of the 1800s. This was a golden age for Russian classical music. It was only really at this point that the Russian's efforts began to be appreciated by their European peers, who previously thought it was crude and unsophisticated. Here are some of the big names... One of the most skilled and inventive orchestrators of all-time, Rimsky-Korsakov had the ability to create astonishingly rich and creative orchestral sound worlds. His talent wasn't the product of extensive practice, but some innate, maybe even divine, gift. He started out not as a musician, but as a naval officer. During his 3-year long round-the-world cruise as a cadet, he wrote his first symphony. He hadn't had any musical training before so it took him a while!

On his return he was mentored by Mily Balakirev, and then became Professor of Composition at the Saint Petersburg conservatory. He is world-famous for such pieces as the Flight of the Bumblebee (from the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan), Capriccio Espagnol , and Sheherezade . He wrote 13 operas, three symphonies, and several other orchestral and chamber pieces. Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) A later Russian composer, Glazunov was introduced to the already famous and established Balakirev and Rimksy-Korsakov at an early age. His talent was huge and he progressed exceptionally quickly. He became the director of the Saint Petersburg conservatory, and later the Leiningrad conservatory after the Russian revolution. But the Soviet government didn't like his methods and his drinking habits, so he eventually fled the country in 1928. His music is a kind of mix of the styles of other Russian composers, with a graceful confidence and wonderfully joyous melodies. Even during his own lifetime the public thought of him as slightly old-fashioned!

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Mussorgsky's story is one of the most tragic stories of all the Russian composers. His music is also slightly different, with a rawer, harsher sound. Still, the beauty and genius of his music is impossible to deny. His work wasn't recognized enough until after his death, when other composers like Rimsky-Korsakov polished the pieces up to 'performance standard' (although loads of people, including me, now prefer Mussorgsky's dark originals!) He was a hugely talented pianist as a child, but joined a military academy and had an uneventful life in the civil service. His life went on a downward spiral of poverty, depression, and alcoholism , until he died at age 42. He is most remembered for the masterful opera Boris Godunov, the chilling orchestral thunderbolt Night on Bald Mountain , and the Pictures at an Exhibition suite. Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) Ah, the polymath! Known for his achievements in chemistry as much as music, Borodin was a both scientist and composer.

Born into an aristocratic family, he became a member of The Five later in life, even though music was hardly more than a serious hobby for him. Borodin created expansive, floating harmonies in some of his songs for voice and piano, which directly inspired French composer Claude Debussy 's luxuriously free-form harmonies. His most famous works are the two beautiful string quartets, and the opera Prince Igor (from which the popular series of Polovtsian Dances come). Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1843) Rachmaninoff has the reputation of writing dark, sultry, impossibly difficult piano music - at least that's how I see him! This huge-handed Russian gained fame as a concert pianist before becoming even more renowned as a composer. He moved from Russia to the USA. Inspired by Tchaikovsky, his music goes even further and has a richly deep and complex quality, as well as some exceptionally beautiful melodies.

His output includes piano concertos, huge amounts of solo piano music, dozens upon dozens of beautiful songs, the hugely popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, grand orchestral tone poems like The Crag, and the deeply spiritual Vespers . Mily Balakirev (1837-1906) The oldest of the Five, and their leader. Balakirev brought them together and led them to create and promote their uniquely Russian music. His influence on the younger Russian composers in his circle is huge - lots of ideas that Rimsky-Korsakov or Mussorgsky used actually originated in Balakirev's head! His music was actually highly original and exciting, but he had a habit of laziness and didn't finish music until sometimes decades after he started writing it. Because of this, he's not as famous as a composer which I think he deserves to be. You can explore more about the lives of these Russian composers and their music by clicking on the links scattered above. Happy reading!

Question: Who composed 'The Little Russian Symphony'?
Answer: TCHAIKOVSKY